Sunday, March 15, 2015

While the classic novel has been adapted many times over the years, no retelling of it strays as far from the original as much as Lifetime's "Wuthering High School." (...)
Another major difference that changes almost the entire tone of the story is the fact that the tale is told through Cathy's (Paloma Kwiatkowski) eyes and not narrated by an outsider. This creates a bias version of events not anywhere near what the original communicated. Cathy's narration lacks the passion and mystery a third party creates. After all in Brontë's version, Catherine is introduced after her tragic death.
While Andrew Jacobs definitely nails the brooding nature of Heathcliff, his deportation storyline doesn't quite connect like Brontë's presumed, troubled orphan. The same goes for Heath's personality. Where Heathcliff is torturously sexy and vengeful, Jacobs doesn't come close to capturing that feeling. It is hard to feel the push and pull of forbidden love when the character is that nice boy one can bring home to mom.
What the Lifetime version does nail though is having the story take place among high school teens. The drama, the revenge and turmoil fits in perfectly with the he said, she said drama of the difficult adolescent years. (Sarah Huggins)

This is a modernized version of Emily Brontë's classic "Wuthering Heights" (1847) with the setting changed to a Malibu, California high school. The performers don't look like they're in high school, but this is a "Lifetime" TV movie fantasy, after all. Almost everything about the story is wretched through most of the running time, and it positively reeks with ending scenes that make no sense. Events during the final 15 minutes are especially confusing; either adapting 1800s details proved too difficult, or director Anthony DiBlasi and the crew simply ran out of time. You didn't miss Mr. Caan's final expiration scene; apparently, it wasn't presented...The camera is steady and the cast is attractive, but the execution is silly... (wes-connors)

When the movie isn’t forcing dialogue from Wuthering Heights for the actors to recite during awkward scenes, it loses ground with poorly set up story lines. I didn’t get a sense of passion behind the project; instead, I saw a cut and paste job where most of the context written for the script seems to come from a Cliff’s Notes version of the novel. Wuthering Heights is not cut and dry; it’s a story that spans generations and is extremely dark in tone. I wish I could say I love Wuthering High School because I want to love it, but there are some classics that should be left alone. (Connie Allen)

Bustle presents the production and compares it with other recent film adaptations:

You may remember Wuthering Heights as a book you read in high school, or maybe as the book that Bella Swan revealed she was obsessed with in New Moon when Jacob suddenly came into the picture. Now, Lifetime is giving us a new take on an old classic. Wuthering High School isn’t based on a true story, it just takes the Emily Brontë tale to Malibu for a modern adaptation. We’re used to Lifetime doing “ripped from the headlines” stories, so this is certainly something new. The television movie stars Paloma Kwiatkowski and Andrew Jacobs as Cathy and Heath. (Leah Thomas)

2paragraphs highlights the presence of Francesca Eastwood and James Caan as Ellen 'Nelly' Dean and Earnshaw respectively, in the production.

1 comment:

They aren't even trying. They could of had Cathy and Heath unknowingly be brother and sister twins separated at birth ( incest) and have them ritualistically kill someone during recess to bond their love. ( goth murder) I'm sure bondage itself, using the school tie, could have been slipped in long before the third commercial break. I'm being sarcastic... but this sounds like some thing one would see lol .

Cathy's narration lacks the passion and mystery a third party creates.

This is a good point. When Nelly tells the tale, one thinks it's hard to understand because we aren't hearing from the principle party, so we keep peering though the mist